Aston Villa 2-0 Lille (Agg:3-0): John McGinn and Leon Bailey goals send Villa into Europa League quarter-finals

  /  autty

Aston Villa are into the quarter-finals of the Europa League following a 2-0 win over Lille at Villa Park.

Second-half goals from John McGinn and Leon Bailey completed a 3-0 aggregate victory for Unai Emery's side as they put their poor Premier League form behind them to set up a tie with Roma or Bologna in the last eight.

They had celebrated Emery's 100 wins in charge of the club before kick-off with a pre-match display and started brightly but had to wait for the breakthrough goal, Amadou Onana denied with their chance of the first half when Berke Ozer dealt with his header.

Lille seemed content to stay in the tie and wait for their chance despite being a goal down from the first leg in France - and when they did come out with more purpose after the interval they were punished. Emiliano Martinez was instrumental in McGinn's goal.

The Argentina international saved Nabil Bentaleb's low free-kick and then sent Jadon Sancho away down the right channel on the counter-attack. It was the winger who found McGinn, making his first appearance at Villa Park since returning from injury.

Bailey has had to wait longer than that, netting his first for Villa in over a year when fellow substitute Ollie Watkins unselfishly played him in. It was just what Villa needed, a scare-free win before an important game against West Ham back at Villa Park on Sunday.

More to follow...

Quarter-finals: April 9 and 16

Semi-finals: April 30 and May 7

Final: May 20 [Besiktas Stadium, Istanbul]

Related: Aston Villa Lille León
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